


The Truth Remains

by ericsonclan



Series: OG World [72]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Graffiti, Piano, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: Clementine decides to surprise Louis by removing the graffitied insult from his piano.
Relationships: Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: OG World [72]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815361
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	The Truth Remains

**Author's Note:**

> (by Laura)

“Fuck,” Clementine growled, scrubbing extra hard with her bit of sandpaper at the side of Louis’ piano. This was turning out to be harder than she thought.

“Swear,” AJ didn’t let his eyes leave the crack in the music room doors he was guarding.

“Sorry, goofball. Didn’t mean to let it slip out like that,” Clementine set the sandpaper down for a second, wiggling her fingers to try to loosen them up a bit. Only five letters in and her fingers were already cramping. Part of her was tempted to use something stronger than sandpaper to remove the graffiti but she didn’t want to do any sort of lasting harm to the piano. This was about writing a wrong, making the cruel words etched into the wood disappear for good.

“It’s looking nice so far,” AJ commented, glancing back for just a moment.

“Thanks,” Clementine looked up at the progress she’d made so far. Five letters had been obliterated, only the smooth woodgrain of the piano remaining where they had once stood. The graffiti now read “ck at playing”. Better, but she wanted it all to be gone before Louis returned. Aasim had promised to take extra time checking the traps today, but the depth of the gouges in the piano meant Clementine had already taken an hour to get this far.

Well, there was no point wasting more time. Squaring her shoulders, Clementine returned to her task with a renewed vigor, her eyes scrunching in determination as she continued. Her back was sore from leaning forward on the piano bench for so long. At least she wasn’t sitting on the floor. Her arms would ache far worse then. Pressing the sandpaper against the letter c and scrubbing wildly, Clementine focused all her rage onto the offending letter.

There wasn’t a lot that she could change in this world, but she could fix this. After weeks of being forced to spend most of her time in bed recuperating and with use of the crutches draining her within the first hour, Clementine had wracked her brain to find something she could do while sitting down that wouldn’t drive her insane with boredom. This task had been one of the first things to come to mind. She wanted to make it a surprise, a sort of thank you to Louis for all he had done for her and AJ since they’d met.

Not that getting rid of graffiti could in any way amount to all they owed Louis. He had welcomed them from their first day at Ericson and let them back in without a second thought when Clementine collapsed in front of Ericson’s gates with an injured A.J. in her arms. After everything that had happened with Marlon, Louis was still able to set aside his anger and pain to become friends with them again. More than friends with Clementine. And he had run out into the woods twice on the same night to find them and helped get Clementine back to the school even as walkers surrounded them and Clem’s stump bled out on his coat.

This gesture wasn’t much, but she knew it would mean a lot to Louis. She had asked the other kids about the graffiti: Violet, Aasim, Ruby. None of them knew who had left it. They had their suspicions, but no one had seen it done. Apparently, it had been there for years, since the early days of the school being abandoned. Aasim noted that back then the school was more crowded, and Louis’ playing did tend to irk a number of the other kids. He wasn’t very good at it yet since he’d never been allowed to play before. Day by day Louis had taught himself each and every thing he knew about playing the piano. Clementine found it impressive. Yet the graffiti had stayed even as Louis’ playing improved; now it was time to erase the lie.

A gasp from A.J. had Clementine spinning round, her arms instinctively covering her work as though it would be possible to hide it. It was just Rosie though, dropping by to say hello. A.J. happily petted the dog, smiling as she lay down beside him. “Good girl, Rosie. You can help guard the door with me. We’re gonna make sure Louis doesn’t come in till Clem’s all done with the surprise,”

Clementine’s heart warmed at the sight of the pair standing guard together. It was wonderful to see A.J. getting to enjoy being a kid: keeping watch simply for the sake of a surprise, spending time with his loyal dog. It hadn’t been long since everything went down with the Delta, but A.J. had recovered well. It was good to see him smiling again, no longer spending every waking minute worrying about her or her leg. He had set down roots at Ericson and she had too. Her eyes returned to the piano. The c was much fainter now, but the lines still remained. Not for long. Clementine sanded the wood with all she had. Come hell or high water, she would get this done.

\---

“There’s a surprise for me in here?” Louis sounded intrigued as he entered the room, his eyes closed and a grin upon his face.

“That’s right. Take about eight more steps and you’ll be at the piano,” Clementine plopped down on the bench, scooting over and setting aside her crutches. “One, two, oh look out”

Louis’ foot hit an empty soda can, causing him to freeze as the can clattered and spun along the floor. “Oops. That wasn’t anything, important, right?”

“Just a can. Your path is clear now. Just a few more steps and you can open your eyes. Close, closer, and… now,”

Louis opened his eyes, looking round the room with curiosity. “Huh. The way A.J. was hyping things up I figured you two would have found some balloons to fill the room with or something. You missed my birthday by about a month, by the way,”

“It’s not a birthday celebration. It’s something more subtle. Look closer,” Clementine directed, watching her boyfriend with anticipation.

Louis looked around the room once more but seemed just as lost as ever. “Hmmm, if there’s something here I’m supposed to be seeing, I’m not spotting it. Probably because the pretty girl on the bench is distracting me,” He grinned, moving to sit down beside Clementine.

“No, not yet!” Clementine exclaimed, raising her hands to stop him.

“I can’t sit by you?” Louis asked in bewilderment, his lips turning down in a mock pout. “This is starting to feel more like a punishment than a reward,”

Clementine rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her own lips. “You’ll live. Just look again. Focus. What means the most to you in this room? Besides me,” Clementine caught Louis’ look just as he was about to say that very thing.

“Took the words right out of my mouth. Besides you, my favorite thing…” Louis’ hands came to rest upon the side of the piano, “Is this,” He leaned forward, glancing at the place where he and Clementine had carved their initials. “Yep, the potato’s still there, same as always,”

“Not that, you dork! Step back, look at the whole piano,”

“Alright, alright, let’s see then…” Louis took a step back, surveying the whole piano carefully. “There’s nothing new here. It’s the same as always,”

“Not something new exactly…” Clementine paused, wondering how to word things without giving the answer away. “Something has changed,”

“Changed? Well, the bench is still here, all four legs, the strings, good old Branchley…” Louis nodded towards the stick he used to hold the cover of the piano open. “The keys are all there, the pedals…” his voice drifted off as he squinted, trying his best to figure out what could have possibly changed. “Wait a minute,”

Clementine’s breath caught in her throat. Had he finally noticed it?

Louis took a step forward, reaching out to brush his fingers along the side of his piano. Where the scribbled graffiti had once been was a blank space, slightly lighter than the rest of the wood but just as smooth. Louis gazed at the spot for several moments before his eyes lifted, meeting Clementine’s. “Those words are gone,”

“That’s right,” Clementine smiled proudly.

“You did this?”

“I did. A.J. kept watch in case Aasim wasn’t able to keep you away long enough and you got back before we finished,”

“So _that_ was why he took us on that whole detour to scout out new places to lay traps!” Louis shook his head, chuckling. “I’ll have to thank him later. And A.J. too,”

“I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear that from you,” Clementine patted the spot on the bench beside her. A little sigh escaped her as Louis sat down beside her and she was able to rest her head upon his shoulder. “We both wanted to thank you for all you’ve done for us,”

“All I’ve done? Clem, you’re the one who saved the school. You saved everyone here!”

“And you saved us both. A.J. when you carried him back inside and me when you found us after the barn,” Clementine grew quiet for a moment, noticing how Louis glanced down sadly at her stump. In those first days she’d woken up he kept apologizing, saying how sorry he was that he had jumped that fence and left her and A.J. behind, how if he had stayed beside them things might have been different. He hadn’t stopped apologizing until Clementine was back on her feet with the use of the crutches and even then, she had to cut him off each time he tried to start again.

“Louis, you saved us that day. A.J. and I wouldn’t be alive anymore if it wasn’t for you,”

Louis took her hand, his thumb rubbing against it gently. “We saved each other,”

Clementine nodded softly, accepting the change. “Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for you. And that graffiti always bugged me. I knew it was a lie from the first moment I met you and heard you play,”

“The dulcet tones of my instrument haven’t driven you mad yet?” Louis quipped, a wry smile upon his face.

“Your playing is beautiful, Louis. I love hearing it. And even though everybody else has gotten too used to it to comment on it, I know they enjoy it too. You know Omar was tapping his foot to that new tune you’ve been working on last night while he was prepping for dinner,”

“He was? You sure he wasn’t just trying to wake that foot up?”

“Louis,” Clementine frowned. “I know you’re out of practice, but you’ve got to believe me when I give you a compliment. I would never lie to you,”

“I know. It’s just…” Louis sighed. “You’re right, I’m out of practice,” He leaned over to look at the side of the piano again. “I never thought to get rid of that. I mean I did, but back when it happened if I scrubbed it out whoever left it would just have carved something new in its place. And after a while I just got used to it being there. I didn’t even really notice it anymore, Well, I did, but,” he turned to look at Clementine, the happiness apparent in his eyes, “Now it’s gone. And that’s thanks to you,”

“You deserve to know how special you are, Lou,” Clementine felt her heart thump as she saw how much those words had meant to Louis. There were tears pricking the corners of his eyes as they welled with emotion.

“Clem…” Not knowing what else to say, Louis wrapped his arms round his girlfriend, pulling her into a tight hug. Clementine returned the hug in kind, grasping on to Louis’ shoulders tightly as he buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Thanks, Clem,” Louis whispered, his voice slightly hoarse.

“You’re welcome, Lou,” Clementine’s hand lightly brushed through her boyfriend’s dreadlocks. She was happy now in this moment with him. She wanted to treasure it.

Eventually Louis pulled back, placing a gentle kiss on Clementine’s cheek before sitting upright. “Well, a surprise like this deserves celebration! Let’s have some music!” He cracked his fingers before placing them across the piano keys. “What would my lady like to hear?”

It didn’t take her long to decide. “How about “Clementine”? That’s my personal favorite,”

Louis looked down shyly at those words, a soft smile upon his lips. “Mine too,” With that Louis began to play, slipping easily into the moment as his fingers played the familiar tune. It was a short melody, but Louis played it again. Then again. Clementine listened happily, her eyes drifting shut as she nuzzled softly into her boyfriend’s warmth. His music was beautiful; she would never grow tired of it. And here, safe and sound within Ericson’s walls, she’d have all of her life to listen to him play again and again.


End file.
